One thing to consider about Windows 8 adoption is that PC sales have stagnated since at least 2010, so it's not necessarily an indictment of Windows 8. Consumers are spending their dollars on "post-PC" devices. Of course, it is clearly an indictment of Microsoft's post-pc strategy.

The truth is that the general purpose personal computer was never ideal for the mainstream anyway, especially from a maintenance perspective. It was a scornful marriage of necessity, not love; unlike many of us. Most people don't need most of what our workstations are capable of. Really, we've all been using developer machines for the past 20+ years.

Personally, I think enthusiasts are being whiners. The problem with Vista were significant technical issues, which isn't the case in Windows 8. Who cares if you have to customize the OS? That's half the fun of PCs as a hobby. Besides, Windows 7 will remain viable for years.

I'm not saying you should like it. Just deal with it. The emotion drenched lamentations and rage I see on enthusiast forums make me retch. We're supposed to be made of sterner stuff. Changing a single UI element isn't a big deal.

Personally, I haven't liked the direction of Windows since 2000. Even though 7 was a pleasant surprise, it's still a bloated, convoluted mess. Really, what Windows needs is to stop trying to be all things for all people. How many hundreds of millions of people have been chatting and browsing on a home computer with enterprise workstation features they will never need for the past 10+ years? No wonder they're sick of PCs and buying tablets instead.

Yes. I Agree, MS needs to stop trying for the 'one UI to rule them all' method. A simple question during install with options would have made a lot of sense. IE "do you want to use the modern, aero or classic UI". Then peeps running touchscreens would have gotten their UI, peeps wanting 2K look would be happy and business who want their computers to 'just work' for their employees would all be happy. Hell peeps like the OP would be happy and programmers and app designers would be happy as they could CHOOSE which UI they want to use!

The problem is the desktop PC is not homogenous like MS thinks it is (based off of flawed polling data most people with a brain turn OFF). It is made of two distinct groups of customer: those who see it as tool and those who see it as media appliance. Window 8 is solely for media appliance users. Workers aint touchin it as its less efficient and has a kludge work flow (only ones who kinda sorta like it in any large numbers are ironically enough MAC users). Business aint going to touch it as retaining will be a nightmare. Going 'oh they wouldnt upgrade to it anyway' is scary thinking. MS cant afford another XP....where their bread and butter sales opt out for a decade. If MS doesnt put the 's' back in Windows 9...business wont touch it either. If things continue the way they are...we may actually see nix and even apple making inroads (prolly aroind window 10 mark). After all IF you have to retrain your work force AND rewrite programs to use the 'modern' UI way of doing things...why not just upgrade to a different OS platform. One seen as being 'more secure' and easier to 'lock down'. Now THAT thought has to be making a lot of brown stains over in Redmond. Only possible good thing to come out of all that would be Ballmer would be toast..must like the master 'designer' for Window 8 was sacked over the abortion he created.

Home users (aka appliance users) hate it because the new UI is not intuitive on a desktop. Just like a desktop UI sucked on a smart phone. Having people NEED to look up how to turn the bloody thing off is just insane. Undoing decades of training to NEVER TOUCH THE POWER BUTTON is not a solution. MS could bull through and ram it down our throats if the economy way booming. BUT, with the economy in the tank less people have room in their budgets for toys and less room for risks.

Tech enthusiasts who consider it both a toy and tool are pissed off because it DOES have some nice new additions but the UI kills it. The fact that a significant portion of people not wanting Windows 8 in its current form- as seen by the rapid growth of alternatives such as start8, etc - is not a good thing. Most of these people are the media appliance users and they are the ones MS is at risk of losing to Apple - who actually understand UI and know how to properly poll and beta test for it. Honestly I doubt we will see a change for the better until Windows 10 comes out. MS are stubborn and wont change course until they HAVE to.

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"If you ever start taking things too seriously, just remember that we are talking monkeys on an organic spaceship flying through the universe." -JR

“if your opponent has a conscience, then follow Gandhi. But if you enemy has no conscience, like Hitler, then follow Bonhoeffer.” - Dr. MLK jr

W8 isn't terrible.
Classic start menu gives you the basic functionality that MS thought we wouldn't need.
Everything else is the same and/or better.
Hell even abstaining from CSM, the basic functionality isn't that different. Just take a few moment to learn the new windows key + xx commands.
windows+x
windows+i
these alone give you the full functionality of the OS.

I agree the new UI is funky, but even without CSM you can avoid using it 90% of the time.
I don't like the homogenization route they are taking but it's not as bad as people want it to be.

W8 isn't terrible.
Classic start menu gives you the basic functionality that MS thought we wouldn't need.
Everything else is the same and/or better.
Hell even abstaining from CSM, the basic functionality isn't that different. Just take a few moment to learn the new windows key + xx commands.
windows+x
windows+i
these alone give you the full functionality of the OS.

I agree the new UI is funky, but even without CSM you can avoid using it 90% of the time.
I don't like the homogenization route they are taking but it's not as bad as people want it to be.

Heh between those two commands I hardly ever open my CSM unless I am loading up a game.
In fact I basically only use it for shortcuts to my games. Everything else is fine.

I understand that the initial uptake on W8 was bad(I was a part of the negative nancies), but giving it a try and forcing myself to get past the "ugh too different, I give up!" gag reflex has made me see that things aren't really THAT different.

eg: Stability is vastly improved. My HTPC running XBMC went from needing a restart about once a week to keep things "snappy" to and uptime over over 120 days now.

Gaming is really no different than it was before. I can't say that things are any better or worse, but just the same.

People don't like change. You don't HAVE to upgrade either, you're not missing much over W7.

I understand that the initial uptake on W8 was bad(I was a part of the negative nancies), but giving it a try and forcing myself to get past the "ugh too different, I give up!" gag reflex has made me see that things aren't really THAT different.

This is really true, I'm about as strong a supporter of Windows 8 as you can find, and I had the same initial reaction.